I shall hope, on my return in the spring, to find your health reestablished, and your mind relieved by a perfect settlement of the affairs of the nation; and with my felicitations on those accounts, to express to you those sentiments of profound respect and attachment, with which I have the honor to be, your Excellency’s most obedient and most humble servant,

Th:  Jefferson.

LETTER XVII.—­TO JOHN JAY, September 30, 1789

TO JOHN JAY.

Havre, September 30, 1789.

Dear Sir,

No convenient ship having offered from any port of France, I have engaged one from London to take me up at Cowes, and am so far on my way thither.  She will land me at Norfolk, and as I do not know any service that would be rendered by my repairing immediately to New York, I propose, in order to economize time, to go directly to my own house, get through the business which calls me there, and then repair to New York, where I shall be ready to re-embark for Europe.  But should there be any occasion for government to receive any information I can give, immediately on my arrival, I will go to New York on receiving your orders at Richmond.  They may probably be there before me, as this goes by Mr. Trumbull, bound directly for New York.

I enclose you herewith the proceedings of the National Assembly on Saturday last, wherein you will perceive that the committee had approved the plan of Mr. Necker.  I can add from other sure information received here, that the Assembly adopted it the same evening.  This plan may possibly keep their payments alive till their new government gets into motion; though I do not think it very certain.  The public stocks lowered so exceedingly the last days of my stay at Paris, that I wrote to our bankers at Amsterdam, to desire they would retain till further orders the thirty thousand guilders, or so much of it as had not yet come on.  And as to what might be already coming on, I recommended to Mr. Short to go and take the acceptance himself, and keep the bill in his own hands till the time of payment.  He will by that time see what is best to be done with the money.

In taking leave of Monsieur de Montmorin, I asked him whether their West India ports would continue open to us a while.  He said they would be immediately declared, open till February, and we may be sure they will be so till the next harvest.  He agreed with me, that there would be two or three months’ provision for the whole kingdom wanting for the ensuing year.  The consumption of bread for the whole kingdom, is two millions of livres tournois, a day.  The people pay the real price of their bread every where, except at Paris and Versailles.  There the price is suffered to vary very little as to them, and government pays the difference.  It has been supposed that this difference for some time past has cost a million a week.  I thought the occasion favorable to propose